Demand for bandwidth by enterprises and individual consumers continues to experience exponential growth. To meet this demand efficiently and economically, data centers have to achieve ultra-high density cabling with low loss budgets. Fiber optics have become the standard cabling medium used by data centers to meet the growing needs for data volume and transmission speeds.
Individual optical fibers are extremely small. For example, even with protective coatings, optical fibers may be only about 250 microns in diameter (only about 4 times the diameter of a human hair). As such, hundreds of fibers can be installed in cables that will take up relatively little space. For connections between cables, however, the fibers are terminated with connectors. Multiple fibers may be arranged within a single connector. For example, multi-fiber connectors such as those using multi-fiber push-on/pull-off (MPO) technology may contain and connect 12 or 24 fibers. Connectors, such as MPO type connectors, generally include a housing portion that contains a ferrule that terminates the ends of the fibers. Ferrules are generally used to retain the ends of the optical fibers for connecting the optical fibers. One type of optical ferrule that may be used with MPO type connectors is an MT (Mechanically Transferable) ferrule.
Typically, MPO connectors are joined together to connect the optical transmission path of one fiber optic cable to another fiber optic cable or device, and the connection may be made by inserting the MPO connectors in an MPO adapter. An adapter generally includes a housing, or portion of a housing, having at least one port which is configured to receive and hold a connector to facilitate the optical connection of the connector ferrule with the ferrule of another connector or other device. Adapters may be used to facilitate connections contained within a chassis. The term “chassis” as used herein broadly refers to a containment structure for housing electrical components or switching components.
MT (Mechanically Transferable) ferrules are optical ferrules which are standardized according to JIS C 5981, IEC 61754-5 and the like. The MT ferrules get pushed together within the adapter to optically connect the ferrules by means of a so-called PC (Physical Contact) connection, wherein the optical fibers in one ferrule contact the optical fibers in the other ferrule and get compressed together to provide an optical connection. Optical transmission performance between the optical fibers is strongly dependent on connecting conditions such as axis alignment and inclination of the optical fibers, and gaps between the opposing optical fibers.
MT ferrules generally use at least two guide pins for high-accuracy alignment of the optical fibers in the mating ferrules. An MT ferrule body may include at least two guide pin holes on the end surface of the ferrule for receiving the guide pins therein. For a pair of mating connectors, one of the ferrule bodies of a first connector may be provided with guide pins in the guide pin holes (generally called the ‘male’ connector), and the other ferrule body of a second connector may have only the guide pin holes (generally called the ‘female’ connector). As such, a highly accurate mating of the connectors may be achieved when the guide pins of the male connector are disposed within the guide pin holes of the female connector.
The gender, male or female, designation of a connector may often be typically predisposed during manufacturing of the connector, wherein connectors may be manufactured to be either male or female. Such connectors may be pre-installed on cable ends, and care must be taken so that the cables are all installed in the proper direction so that mating of male and female ends may possible. Alternatively, for on-site installation, a connector may be assembled onto a cable end, and during assembly the installer may install pins or a pin component into a ferrule body to provide a male connector, or alternatively, leave such pieces absent to provide a female connector.
For installations wherein the gender may accidentally end up being incorrect, or installations where the gender may need to be changed for one reason or another, such as a renovation or installation of a gender specific component, the gender of typical connectors is not changeable, or only changeable after disassembly and reassembly in the opposite designation. As such, for predetermined gender connectors, an entire connector may need to be removed and essentially scrapped, for replacement by an opposite gender connector, or for connectors requiring disassembly and reassembly, much time may be wasted in the re-gendering process.
Therefore, there remains a need for multi-fiber, fiber optic connectors that have the flexibility of easily changing the gender of the connector on site.